09.08.16: Show ’em!

IT DIDN’T TAKE MUCH to convince you. Once you saw Nimrod next to Times, you became a convert. What really made it a no-brainer was seeing that Nimrod at 9 point was w-a-y larger than Times at 10 point.

So you made the switch to Nimrod for text, telling your readers you were improving the readability of your newspaper.

And that’s where the trouble began.

Some readers—for some reason—looked at your newspaper and were absolutely convinced otherwise. They knew you had made the text smaller—and that it was part of some evil plot! What’s more, they began talking with other folks at the local café, the church group and the senior citizens center—and all of them were sure you made the type smaller!

That’s when the time comes for you to do some face-to-face sessions with your readers. Take your latest issue—and a copy of the paper before you made the change—and show it to them. Let them see for themselves that the new text is larger and easier to read.

That will quiet most of them.

I say “most of them” because, yes, some readers are so sure they’re right about you making the type smaller that—even after seeing it for themselves—they just can’t believe what their eyes are telling them.